I’m not at all surprised by this announcement, but Wyndham Worldwide announced yesterday that they have purchased US Franchise Systems, which operates the Microtel and Hawthorne Suites brands from Global Hyatt.

This is a perfect fit for Wyndham, and except for the possibility that private equity firms may jump in, Wyndham was always perceived as the front runner for this transaction. Wyndham now has 12 hotel brands, and primarily in the economy, mid-market segment, and is clearly a leader.

It was not publicized as to how much Wyndham paid for USFS, but they are getting a great company, while it may not be up to par with luxury hotel brands, MicroTel and Hawthorne Suites are almost all completely new builds, thought of very highly in the developer community and just underwent a redesign of the rooms. Wyndham will easily ramp up development for those two brands by integrating it into their existing Franchise Sales department who has plenty of experience with smaller, economy/mid-market hotel brands.

Global Hyatt was always holding USFS back, not purposly, but mainly because they were focusing on their higher-end brands, they integrated Hawthorne Suites into the Hyatt Gold Passport rewards program, but didn’t even touch MicroTel, now with its integration into Wyndham, I see it MicroTel & Hawthorne quickly being integrated into the TripRewards network which will do nothing but help bring the promotion of the two brands to the forefront of the TripRewards users.

For those who are wondering – whats going to happen to their Hawthornes Gold Passport rewards, last I heard Global Hyatt said that you would be able to redeem those points at Hawthorne Suites at least until the end of this year. Obviously, if you gained all of your rewards through Hawthorne Suites – you’ll be able to use them at any Hyatt according to the redemption rules, you wouldn’t be required to only use them at Hawthrone Suites after the transaction closes. MicroTel had a smaller rewards program only for the MicroTel brand, that was never integrated with Hawthorne or Hyatt which that will most likely be completely rolled into the TripRewards program.

andrew@alconic-inc.com

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